Spring Lasagna

If you want to make this extra special, prepare this lasagna with homemade pasta sheets. It's the easiest way to learn how to work with fresh pasta because there is no cutting or drying involved. It's as simple as mixing the flours, eggs and olive oil, letting it rest, and cranking the dough through a pasta roller. There's really nothing like it, but I understand if you settle on a box of the no-boil stuff because, honestly, I do it all the time! There are a couple guidelines whenever making lasagna, whether this recipe or another:
1) Always account for the pasta expanding, which means you should overlap the sheets and allow for ½ inch around the edge of you pan
2) Distribute ricotta smoothly and to the very edge of each pasta sheet to ensure proper moisture intake and the pasta cooking evenly.

1 box Barilla No-Boil Pasta
Bechemel Sauce (recipe to follow)
8 oz. pesto (fresh recommended)
8 oz. canned roasted tomatoes
1 15 oz. container ricotta cheese
2 whole eggs
½ cup Parmesan cheese
2 small zucchini
1 small summer squash
1 baby or Japanese eggplant
1 cup shredded mozzarella

Bechemel:
4 Tbs. unsalted butter
4 Tbs. all-purpose unbleached flour
4 cups whole milk
¼ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
¼ tsp. curry powder
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400° F. Thinly slice zucchinis and eggplant and roast with a little olive oil, salt and pepper for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375° F.
Pour milk into saucepan to warm through without letting simmer, then lower heat. In separate saucepan melt butter on medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook for 2 minutes. Slowly add milk and continue to whisk until sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 15 minutes. Add spices, pesto and roasted tomatoes. Set aside and allow to cool.
In a separate bowl combine ricotta, eggs, and ¼ cup of Parmesan.
Grease 9 x 13 baking pan.
Begin to assemble lasagna starting with ¼ portion of sauce on bottom of pan, then 4 sheets of pasta, 1/3 portion of ricotta mixture, green zucchini, sauce, pasta, ricotta, squash, sauce, pasta, ricotta, eggplant, sauce, pasta sauce, mozzarella and remaining ¼ cup Parmesan. Bake 50 minutes covered with foil*, 10 minutes uncovered. Let sit 15 minutes before serving.

(*I like to spray the inside of the foil with nonstick cooking spray to prevent cheeses from sticking)© 2008 Amanda Dalmath